Let Sleeping Telepaths Lie
by Lover of Angelus
Summary: Erik should've known better than to wake a telepath from his nightmare. CHERIK.
1. Let the nightmares begin

**Title**: Let Sleeping Telepaths Lie

**Disclaimer**: Me no own, You no sue.

**Warning**: Angst, PTSD, slash, language

**Note**: _italics_ is inside Erik's or Charles' head; **_bold italics_ **are memories. Sorry if the formatting gets confusing.

**Note2**: Narrative will be 2nd POV, switching between Charles and Erik.

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>: Let the nightmares begin

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><p>He didn't mean to, you know that.<p>

And really, you shouldn't have woken up a telepath in the middle of a nightmare.

-z-

**_The hits are coming faster and mother is weeping in the corner. If she could stand, you know that she would be taking these hits for you. But she can't stand so she can't take these hits and you're just fine with that._**

_The shouting and cursing in this particular memory-nightmare have long since faded, lost to time and buried deep._

_You do remember how this beating ends though._

**_Your father is on his knees and you're standing over him, screaming as you hack away at his psyche._**

When Erik wakes you, your mind reaches out and slashes him deep.

-z-

"Char-," you don't even have time to say his full name as you feel the knife-edge of Charles' subconscious slice into your own, digging up your most painful of memories and forcing you to relive them all, amplifying all of your emotions a thousand fold.

**_The Nazi's breaking down the door, shoving your mother to her knees as they search for others._**

**_A bright pink spray shooting out of your mother's head._**

**_Shaw laughing and cutting, laughing and cutting._**

An absolute fear you hadn't known since you got your powers encircles you, gripping your neck and squeezing.

-z-

"No!" Charles shouts as he recoils violently.

But the damage is done and Erik is convulsing on the floor, screaming in pain and terror, trapped in his memories.

"Erik," you desperately try to call out to him, but he's too far gone.

"Charles!" Raven throws herself into the room.

"Get the others and get out of the house," you scream, noticing that anything remotely metal has begun to swirl around the room and it won't be long before it's everything in the whole mansion. As if on cue, something just outside the room shatters.

"Go now!" you shout one last time, and Raven is quick to obey. "Get as far away as you can!"

You turn back to Erik and enter his mind once more.

* * *

><p>To be continued...<p> 


	2. Nazis

**Title**: Let Sleeping Telepaths Lie

**Disclaimer**: Me no own, You no sue.

**Warning**: Angst, PTSD, slash, language

**Note**: _italics_ is inside Erik's head; **_bold italics_ **are memories.

**Note2**: "Hündchen" is German for "puppy" - genius, I know.

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>: Nazis

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><p>"Erik, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," you whisper to yourself as you stroke his hair and close your eyes. Taking a deep breath you press your foreheads together and slowly, so slowly, walk in.<p>

-z-

**_You and mama are laughing when Hündchen stands and begins to growl at the door._**

**_You only have the briefest second to share a glance before the door shatters in on itself and the Nazi's are there, barking orders and filling the house._**

**"_Mama!" you cry out reflexively as a Nazi grabs her by the hair and shoves her to her knees._**

**_Then Hündchen is on the soldier, all vicious snarling and you can't grab him back before the soldier pulls his pistol and shoots Hündchen down._**

_You remember the anger then, but it's nothing to what you feel now. Then, it had broiling over…_

_**You go to hit the soldier-**_

_But now the memory's changed. And instead of anger, it's fear._

_**But stop as the soldier puts the gun to mama's head.**_

_"Erik?" a soft voice comes from the soldier's mouth. But even after all these years, you know it's not the soldier's voice you're hearing. It's someone else…._

_"Shh, Erik."_

_**The soldier is putting the gun down and he helps mama to her feet. Hündchen's body is gone and so are the other soldiers. The house is suddenly brighter and there's sunlight coming through the window.**_

_"Charles," you don't know where the name comes from, but it soothes the panic and fear._

_Then your mother is gone and so is the soldier and you're thirty and Charles is standing there, tears in his eyes and he keeps saying your name._

_"Erik? Erik, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he slowly walks towards you, arms open. "Come back to me, Erik. I'm sorry, please, come back."_

_Then you're eight again and the fear clamps down on your heart, tightening your chest and throat and you can't breathe._

_"Charles," you fall to your knees as the house around you shakes and trembles._

_"Erik!" Charles' voice is all around you, but you can't see him. There's blood in your eyes and the house collapses in on the both of you._

-z-

"Dammit, Erik!" you shout to no one in particular as you race after that little boy.

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><p>To be continued...<p> 


	3. Mother

**Title**: Let Sleeping Telepaths Lie

**Disclaimer**: Me no own, You no sue.

**Warning**: Angst, PTSD, slash, language

**Note**: _italics_ is inside Erik's head; **_bold italics_ **are memories.

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><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>: Mother

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><p>You listen as the mansion around you groans, pleading for even the slightest reprieve. You pray that you'll live through this. A quick check and you know that all the children are out of the house and running.<p>

You close your eyes and let the darkness envelope you as you search for Erik.

-z-

_**The man is staring and starting to count.**_

_**You can only glare at the coin and the soldiers and man with mama's life hanging on but a word.**_

_**You're trying, you really are.**_

_**But the report of the pistol and the pink spray of blood lets the world know of your failure.**_

_**Rage – white hot and dangerous and seductive, races through your veins as you tear down the walls and smash the windows. **_

_"Erik," the soft voice is but a whisper lost on the winds of your righteous fury._

_**You sit next to your dead mother as all Nazis within a three mile radius are shot by their own weapons.**_

_Then, just as you go to smile at the destruction you've wrought, that fear, that absolute terror is back and it's clenching your stomach and it has wrangled its gnarled hands around your spine, its grip sending pulses of ice through your body._

_And just before Charles can find you, curled up in your dead mother's arms, you're jerked up and away – screaming, screaming, screaming._

-z-

A fist connects against your cheekbone, shattering it.

_Dammit, Erik!_ you curse around the pain.

You ignore it though, push your way through it, and dive back in.

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><p>To be continued...<p> 


	4. Shaw

**Title**: Let Sleeping Telepaths Lie

**Disclaimer**: Me no own, You no sue.

**Warning**: Angst, PTSD, slash, language

**Note**: **_bold italics_ **are memories; _italics_ is inside Erik's head.

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><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>: Shaw

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><p>You feel the blood running down your face. You're pretty sure that Erik smashed your cheekbone, but you try to ignore it as best as you can.<p>

So with one last rally of strength, you shove your way back into Erik's mind.

-z-

**_Shaw is laughing and blood covers the walls and you're crying again._**

**_The guards drag the dead boy away and the tiny metal discs in your plastic room shiver and shake and tremble as the familiar anger courses through you._**

**_Shaw is still chuckling with manic glee as he claps his hands together and congratulates you on your use of power._**

_But then, the memory changes and shifts._

_You're not twelve anymore, you're thirty. And the murdered boy is no longer just another nameless face – it's Alex, then it's Raven, then it's Sean._

_**And it's their blood that covers the walls and the floors and the barrel of the soldier's pistol.**_

_**"No!" you're shouting and attacking the glass. But the entire room is plastic and Shaw is standing on the other side of the thick glass – laughing.**_

_**You reach out with your powers, searching in vain for anything, anything you could use. The flimsy discs offer nothing.**_

_**And Shaw is still just laughing.**_

_"Erik?" a fluttering voice from the dead boy wearing AlexRavenSean's face. But that voice belongs to none of them._

_"Charles?" you fight even harder against the glass, your knuckles bloody and numb._

_Then AlexRavenSean stop switching faces and settles firmly on Charles'._

_"It's okay, Erik," Charles says._

_You notice now that Shaw is gone and it's just you and Charles – Charles whose face is smashed and bloody._

_"What happened?" you demand. But then you blink and the wound is gone and it's you and Charles and the facility your monster-self was created in is slowly fading away._

_"Erik, c'mere," Charles beckons you quietly._

_You feel that absolute terror rise in you-_

_"Ignore it, Erik!" Charles shouts, desperate._

_-it suddenly gives way to the broiling rage._

_"Erik, please!" Charles is in front of you now, gripping your arms. "Come back to me! Erik!"_

_You clutch at your head as Fear and Rage battle for dominance._

_"I'm here, Erik, I'm here," Charles is holding on as all around you the worst scenes of your life play out. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."_

_Some tiny part of your mind that was still capable of rational thought realizes that Charles is the one who did this; Charles' Mind personified the fear and the hate that had dominated your life._

_And here he was now, trying to save you – and good Lord above, you knew you needed it._

_"Charles," the name is like cool water on a dying man's tongue._

_Charles throws his arms around your neck and pulls you down for a searing kiss, warmth and calm flood you then._

-z-

The mansion grows quiet as you extricate yourself from Erik's mind. You slowly bring him back with you.

Erik's eyes open slowly as he looks around. He blinks up and, in the soft morning light that's slowly creeping in through the window, he sees what he's done.

"Charles," Erik slowly sits up, taking in the smashed side of your face and the blood on his hand.

You don't let him say anything else as you pull him in for one more kiss.

-z-

Charles didn't mean to, you know that.

And really, you shouldn't have woken up a telepath in the middle of a nightmare.

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><p>End.<p> 


End file.
